Ukrainian president Zelensky has survived ‘more than a dozen assassination attempts’ with various suspected killers ‘liquidated’, Close adviser claims

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has survived ‘more than a dozen assassination attempts’, one of his close advisers has claimed.

Mikhail Podolyak, the head of the office for the President, has warned of Russian ‘sabotage groups’ entering Kyiv and attempting to hunt down Mr. Zelensky and his family.

But he said a ‘very powerful network of intelligence and counterintelligence’ had foiled the attempted attacks and the attempted killers had been ‘liquidated’ before they reached the president. 

Mr. Podolyak said western intelligence was right to say Mr. Zelensky was Putin’s ‘number one target’ but refuted recent reports that stated the Ukraine president had survived ‘three assassination attempts in the last week’, believing the number to be far higher. 

Speaking to Pravda.com, Mr. Podolyak said: ‘Our foreign partners are talking about two or three attempts. I believe that there were more than a dozen such attempts.’

He said the president’s office always has ‘operational information’ sabotage groups who want to enter the government quarter.

According to him, these groups are tracked by the intelligence agencies, and ‘liquidated’ before they arrive.  

Last week, it was reported that Mr. Zelensky had survived three attempts on his life after mercenaries from the Kremlin-backed Wagner group and Chechen special forces were both allegedly sent to kill the Ukrainian president since the start of Russia’s invasion.

The assassins were foiled by subversive anti-war members within Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) – Russia’s successor to the KGB – who alerted Ukraine officials, The Times reported.